


How Legends Are Born

by Moonlight Mist (MisteryMaiden)



Category: Naruto
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, Minor Injuries, Serious Injuries
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-27
Updated: 2017-06-04
Packaged: 2018-02-22 19:29:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 10,222
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2519174
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MisteryMaiden/pseuds/Moonlight%20Mist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Mission to Wave could have turned out deadly yet everything turned out for the best. What if, because of a chance moment during the first fight between Kakashi and Zabuza, that changed? All of a sudden, the future isn't what it could have been. It's something more.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

It was just supposed to be a C-Rank; an easy escort mission. They went escorted him home and then left. Easy, nothing to it really.

Except that wasn’t what they found after leaving the village. First Team Seven had been attacked by B-Ranked Missing Nin and now they were watching their sensei fight an A-Ranked Missing Nin by the name of Momochi Zabuza after having freed him from a water prison.

With Kakashi freed, the fight was supposed to be fast and in their favor. Kakashi was their sensei; after all, he couldn’t be taken down by some cheap missing nin! Except the fight was even and Kakashi had taken a blow to the stomach that was bleeding steadily.

Eventually Zabuza was nearly defeated and a hunter ninja took him out for them before disappearing with the body but Kakashi hadn’t come out for the better either. With a steadily bleeding wound and a severe case of chakra exhaustion, the jounin was out for the count. It was only luck that they weren’t too far from Tazuna’s home where they’d be able to treat their sensei’s wounds.

However once they got there Sakura took one look at the wound and passed out while Sasuke fled to go heave in the yard outside. The blood was rather gruesome to look at but it was a clean cut. Naruto ignored his two teammates and assessed the damage.

“Boil some water and soak some clothes in it! We need to clean it before stitching and bandaging it!” Naruto barked at the stunned civilians.

“Right!” The woman, Tazuna’s daughter most likely, darted into the kitchen while Naruto worked to stem the bleeding and rummage simultaneously through his pack for his medical kit. It had everything had had ever used to heal himself when he was younger inside and he was more than grateful that he’d thought to bring it.

“Here are the clothes!” the woman panted as she burst back into the room. Naruto grabbed the burning hot fabric from the pan she’d brought the in and, ignoring the burn of his hands, began cleaning out the wound to prevent infection. It said a lot about their sensei when the only real reaction Naruto got was a small wince.

As he was sure that it was clean thoroughly, Naruto pulled out some medical thread and a needle that he kept soaked in disinfectant before he began to sew the wound shut with a steady hand. For the first time in a long time the genin was glad that he had been forced to take care of his own wounds when he was younger. If he hadn’t been there was a good chance that Kakashi would die.

Once the stitches where done, Naruto grabbed a bottle of diluted lavender oil and applied it to the wound. It would work as an antiseptic and help the wound heal without infection. Satisfied with his patch job Naruto began wrapped the wound in bandages before redressing his sensei in spare clothing that Tazuna had brought out for him.

“Is he going to be super alright?” The bridge builder asked hesitantly.

“He should be,” answered Naruto, grinning. “I doused the wound with diluted lavender oil so it should heal without infection.”

Looking at the bloodied uniform of his sensei’s old clothes, Naruto began emptying the pockets in preparation of throwing it out. Kunai, shuriken, ninja wire, and more weapons slowly piled on the floor before there was only a bingo book left in the ruined clothing.

Naruto looked at the book curiously before flipping through it. That Hunter Nin hadn’t seemed right to him and he figured that maybe Zabuza’s page in the bingo book would answer his questions. Sure enough, Zabuza was described as travelling with an unknown companion that was known for disguising as a Hunter Nin and showing up to save Zabuza when it was clear that the older ninja was losing.

Sakura groaned from the flour as she came too. Naruto gave her a concerned glance as she steadily sat up and looked wearily at their sleeping sensei. “Wow,” she muttered as she saw white bandages peek out from under the clean civilian shirt. Sasuke chose that time to stumble back in with a groan.

“You alright teme?” Naruto asked the pale white Uchiha.

“Fine.” Sasuke grunted. “You fixed up sensei?” there was a note of disbelief in his voice.

“Sure did, dattebayo!” Naruto grinned. “He’ll be fine soon enough but it’ll take longer since he’s got a bad case chakra exhaustion. I think he’s entered a healing coma but I’m not sure,” the blond admitted.

“Great,” Sasuke snapped. “Just great.”

“What are we going to do now?!” Sakura whispered, slightly afraid of the upcoming days.

“Don’t know but we should fortify the house,” Naruto suggested. “I don’t think that Hunter Nin was good news.”

“Since when do you think?!” Sakura snapped. She knew it wasn’t right and that she shouldn’t be taking her anger and fear out on Naruto but that didn’t stop her from doing so.

Naruto glared at her. “Since I took sensei’s bingo book and found out that he was traveling with Zabuza and no one knows what he can do or what he looks like without the mask!”

The other two genin paused and Sakura had the decency to look repentant for her remark. “He’ll be back eventually,” Sasuke acknowledged reluctantly. “I remember Iruka-sensei saying that Death States took a while to recover from and sensei also injured him.”

“We can’t send for help either because Kakashi-sensei is unconscious.” Sakura muttered, worried. “So what are we going to do?”

“Fortify the house,” Naruto stated as if it were obvious. “Trap the forest outside and post clones to let us know if a ninja attempts to approach. Learn that water walking thing sensei and Zabuza were doing and practice all of our techniques.”

Sasuke and Sakura looked at the blond in surprise. Naruto was still grinning but for once it looked more predatory than, well, idiotic. It reminded the two of the Academy where that grin spoke of untold pranks that had most of the Ninja population of Konoha shuddering in fear. It was something that made both of the pause before glancing at each other and nodding in agreement. Naruto was the only one of them with experience in trapping, whether it be pranks or not.

“So dobe,” began Sasuke. “You tell us what to do.” Normally, Sasuke wouldn’t have ever even considered following the dobe’s lead but back when fighting Zabuza, it had been Naruto who devised the plan to free Kakashi. It was Naruto who had patched up their sensei after the two of them had either passed out or left to puke. And it was Naruto who had the plan so for the first time since becoming a team; Sasuke would follow Naruto’s lead.

Naruto looked at Sasuke for a minute before grinning. “Right, here’s what we’ll do…”

* * *

 

Kakashi spike a fever later that night. It seemed that his immune system had crashed due to his wound and chakra exhaustion. While just a cold with Kakashi’s immune system shot to hell, it could easily become deadly.

“I need feverfew and Vervain,” Naruto called to Sakura. “The bottle should be labeled!” He was boiling hot water and preparing a boil to grind the herbs in before adding it to the water. Sakura nodded and dug out the bottles as quick as she could.

Sasuke was busy placing cool clothes and ice on their unconscious sensei to lessen the fever under the order of Naruto.

“How do you know all this stuff, anyway?” Sakura finally asked as Naruto added the crushed herbs into the small pot of boiling water.

Naruto frowned and looked at her. “Well, I’m an orphan. I can’t really afford a medic when I get sick so I read up on home remedies and Hokage-jiji taught me some stuff that he knew.”

“Oh,” Sakura blinked. She’d never considered what Naruto would do without parents when he was ill and it certainly never occurred to her that he would have to pay for a medic nin to treat him by himself.

Naruto shrugged off her look of pity with a bit of discomfort. It didn’t sit well with him that she was pitying him. No one had ever really pitied him before and he found that he didn’t like the feeling at all.

“It’s done,” Naruto finally broke the silence as he took the pot off the stove. “Now it just needs to cools before we get him to drink it.”

“How do we do that?” Sasuke yelled from his spot in the room over.

“Sit him up and open his mouth!” Naruto yelled back before turning to Sakura. “You’ll have to pour it while I rub his throat to get him to swallow.”

Sakura nodded before sighing as the blond walked into the other room. “This is going to be a long night,” she muttered before following.

* * *

 

They slept most of the next day before Tsunami (the name of Tazuna’s daughter) woke them up at noon for lunch. Tazuna had put off going to work on the bridge until his escorts had time to protect his family.

Kakashi was still unconscious but the herb had broke his fever as well as the ice. The Vervain had taken care of the cold that had tried to take hold and Naruto was relieved to find that Kakashi had brought chakra and food pills with him, meaning that they wouldn’t have to worry about him starving to death while unconscious.

“Right! We’ve already booby trapped the woods surround the house,” Naruto’s clones, made the night before, reported to the newly awake Team Seven. “And half of us are stationed throughout the forest as rocks and stuff!”

Naruto grinned at them before waving them away to join the other clones in the forest. Sasuke looked somewhat impressed at the quick work of his teammate’s clones while Sakura ignored it all in favor of the food in front of her.

“So the sooner we get the bridge done the sooner we can get Kakashi-sensei back to Konoha,”  
Naruto summarized as they ate. “You and Sasuke should go to the bridge with my clones and guard Tazuna while practicing that water walking thing while I stay here and guard Kakashi-sensei, Tsunami and Inari.”

“Right!” Sakura nodded while Sasuke grunted his agreement. The plan set, the genin finished eating before going their separate ways to do their jobs. Naruto created thirty clones with the instructions to head to the bridge and help Tazuna build before checking on Kakashi again.

“Right,” Naruto nodded to himself as Tsunami bustled about the kitchen, cleaning up. “Now how did Kakashi-sensei and that Zabuza guy do that water thing?”

It would have to have something to do with chakra but how? Naruto walked outside and towards the dock of the bay with determination. Maybe it was like the leaf balancing exercise? Except instead of focusing the chakra on the leaf he would be focusing chakra towards his feet. Nodding to himself in determination Naruto carefully placed a foot on water surface on the shore and slowly pushed down. His foot sunk but stopped before it hit the surface of the waterbed.

“Right,” Naruto muttered and repeated the process with his other foot. While not on the water, he wasn’t standing on the lake bottom either so now he needed to figure out how to stay on top instead of sinking. An idea popped into his head and Naruto formed a now familiar hand seal.

“Kage Bunshin no Jutsu!” Naruto shouted after forming the ram seal. Twenty clones appeared in a cloud of smoke. “Alright guys, let’s get this down!” Naruto shouted as the clones as cheered and rushed at the water.

This was going to be a long day.

* * *

 

Two days later and Naruto had the water walking down. They had established a routine the first day: Wake up, eat, guard Tazuna and the bridge, and practice water walking while checking on Kakashi every once in a while. Naruto had discovered that it was quicker to train with his clones and he always sent about thirty to the bridge with Sakura and Sasuke, who worked on perfecting water walking with the clones’ help as they watched over the construction crew, helping when it was needed and watching when no help was required.

The third day, his clones dispelled before reaching the house and Naruto was bombarded with memories about the bridge as he helped Tsunami around the kitchen. He fought not to shout out in confused pain as a headache throbbed behind his eyes due to the influx of information he’d just gained.

 “What was that?” he mumbled in confusion before deciding to think more on it later when they all headed to bed for the night. He turned his attention to his arriving team and their client.

“I’ve mastered water walking!” Sakura proclaimed proudly as she sat down. Sasuke gave a confirming grunt as he also took a seat.

“I’ve got it down too, dattebayo!” Naruto grinned as he helped pass out dishes to each person. “What about you, teme?”

“Almost,” Sasuke grunted, displeased with being the last person to master the odd technique. It was a bit harder than he had expected.

“Sasuke-kun can stand a few inches below the surface!” Sakura reported happily as they began serving themselves. “It’s a bit hard to change the flow the entire time so he can’t stand on top yet.”

“Me and my clones worked on it all day!” Naruto agreed. “It took forever, dattebayo!”

“Those clones of yours are super helpful, super believe it,” Tazuna commented. “We got a super amount super done! We’ll be done in super no time!” In the past three days, the bridge was over half done due to the extra hands that Naruto’s clones provided. Tazuna was beyond grateful for the help, as were the remaining workers. It seemed his clones’ policies on passing time were more ‘help whenever not busy helping Sakura and the Teme with water walking’ than he had been expecting. Not that he was complaining if it got them out of here sooner.

“Still no sign of Zabuza or the Hunter Nin,” Sakura reported as she took a bite of the food Tsunami provided.

“Just a bit of thugs wandering about, nothing serious,” Sasuke added as he too, began to eat.

“Nothing around here either and my clones haven’t reported anyone attempting to approach either.” Naruto nodded. “Kakashi-sensei still hasn’t woken up but his chakra is closer to normal levels so he should wake up soon. No more fevers either.”

There were relieved nods from the other two members of the team. Inari scowled at the lot of them but kept quiet due to the verbal thrashing Naruto had given the boy the night before. It wasn’t a pretty thing and Naruto refused to think anymore about the incident with the younger boy. It wasn’t worth getting angry about all over again.

“So now what do we work on?” Sakura asked, frowning. “I doubt learning to walk on water is going to help us out _that_ much against Zabuza and his partner.” Though it was definitely cool and she was willing to bet the Ino had yet to learn the skill. ‘Take that, Ino-Pig!’ Inner Sakura yelled triumphantly.

“We can go through sensei’s things and see if he brought any scrolls for us to learn from,” Sasuke suggested. It would make the most sense.

Naruto shook his head. “I already looked, there wasn’t anything like that in with his things,”  
 Naruto sounded a bit regretful and more than a tad annoyed. The least their sensei could have done was leave them with _some_ kickass jutsu! Lazy Pervert.

“Great,” Sakura mumbled.

In the past three days the members of Team Seven had learned to work together better than any of their previous D-ranks had ever managed to teach them. Sasuke spoke more and grunted less while Sakura stopped holding back her ideas in favor of getting Sasuke’s attention by being sweet and ‘innocent’. Naruto stopped being overly ridiculous (though it was fun throwing people off with it when he went into town every once in a while) and a bit more serious. In truth they had matured over the time they spent planning ways to survive. Whether they had been on their own for days or weeks, that level of responsibility in a hostile situation was always going to change them and they had strived to have it change them for the better.

“So we need to learn new techniques but our only way is unconscious and we’re trapped here until the bridge is built while our enemies regroup in some unknown place and could appear and attack us at any time.” Sasuke summarized before huffing in annoyance. The next time they had an opportunity to take a C-Rank, Sasuke was going to interrogate their client to make absolutely sure that all the information was valid.

“Pretty much,” Naruto admitted. “I think the first thing we should do is disguise ourselves.”

“With what?” Sakura asked, frowning. “If you haven’t noticed, Zabuza is a Jounin. The Henge isn’t going to fool him!”

“Not with chakra!” Naruto snapped, finally fed up with being thought of as an idiot. So he didn’t have the best grades at the Academy but that didn’t make his stupid! “I got away from jounin and Chuunin all the time when I pulled pranks and you know how? Because they were looking for a bright orange jumpsuit and when I changed clothes and hid my hair, they walked right past me!”

“Zabuza and the Hunter Nin will be looking for a kid in a bright orange jumpsuit with blond hair, a girl with pink hair and a red dress, and another kid wearing the Uchiha crest with black hair.” Naruto grinned as understanding passed over the faces of everyone gathered. “So what happens when we change that?”

Two matching grins met his own as they began planning on how to change their appearances with a Henge. Naruto had some clones Henge into civilians before telling them what supplies to get.

Ninja were masters of hiding in plain sight, after all.

* * *

 

“Are you sure this dye will wash out?” Sakura asked as she fingered black locks that had at one time been a bright pink.

“Of course is will!” Naruto grinned, red spikes replacing his previously blond hair. Sasuke’s hair had been dyed brown in replace of his black locks.

“Right, so now we look sort of different but what if they still recognize us? Our clothing is still the same,” Sakura pointed out as she blow dried her newly dyed hair.

“Easy!” Naruto pulled out some clothes from the bag his clones had brought back. “Change into these and then I’ll put the finishing touches on.”

Five minutes later and Sakura’s red dress was replaced with a flexible shirt, a skirt, and leggings that were all colored in different shades of green, matching her green eyes. Sasuke’s blue shirt with the Uchiha crest was replaced with a black shirt and grey pants that blended well against stone. Finally, Naruto’s signature jumpsuit was replaced with a red shirt and black pants. With the change of hair and clothes, they looked like different people almost.

“Right so hide your hitai-ate.” Naruto instructed and watched as the both hid the forehead protectors in their pockets. “So my hair’s not my give away but it is your guy’s. Sakura, you need to cut your hair and Sasuke, we need to style your hair differently.” He had learned the hard way that you needed to be thorough if you wanted to hide from ninja of any rank without jutsu.

Both grimaced but nodded. They could always change it back or grow it again later when there wasn’t two terrifying missing ninja after them. “Tsunami-chan? Can you cut Sakura-chan’s hair while I work on the teme’s?” Naruto asked the watching woman. He wasn’t about to trust himself on cutting hair long hair and especially not a _girl’s_ long hair. He liked living and he wasn’t so stupid that he didn’t know what would happen if he screwed it up. Cutting his own hair was a different matter and he was certain that Sasuke’s hair would be far easier than his own unruly locks.

“Of course,” she nodded and picked up a pair of scissors while Naruto took out a kunai and began working on Sasuke’s hair. Thirty minutes later and Sasuke’s hair was laying flat against his head and Sakura’s hair hung just above her shoulders. If Naruto hadn’t known them before, he wouldn’t have been able to recognize them. Excellent. This was better than anything he had managed in the past!

“Right,” Naruto nodded and dug out the last product in the bag before walking to the bathroom. When he came back, his trademark whiskers were gone. “Now no one will recognize us!” Naruto grinned at them.

Sasuke and Sakura studied each other in the mirror before conceding that Naruto had done a great job on them. Sakura doubted that her own parents would recognize her, bangs hanging on the side of her face and hair in a styled ponytail with little to no hair covering her neck. Sasuke’s trademark Hair style was replaced with a normal styled hair cut that made…

“We look like civilians,” Sasuke muttered aloud, completing his previous thought where everyone could hear.

“And who ever expect a civi of being dangerous?” Naruto grinned evilly, his red hair only emphasizing the look. Really, the red hair looked almost as natural on the once blond as his blond hair had. He’d even remembered to do their eyebrows, which was a really smart move on the dobe’s part.

“So what plan requires us to look like civilians?” Sasuke knew that Naruto had to have something up his sleeve if he was dressing them like this. Blending in was good an all but there had to be a reason for it.

“I’ve been thinking,” Naruto began. “Zabuza and his ally are after us because Gato hired them to kill Tazuna, right? What if there’s no more Gato?”

“Then there’s no more Zabuza and the Hunter Nin,” Sakura realized, blinking. “So we just need to take out Gato,” she grinned. At one point in time that thought would have bothered her but now? Now it was either kill Gato or die fighting Zabuza and his apprentice. And she really didn’t want to die.

“And then let them know that their employer is no longer around so they’ve no reason to attack us anymore,” Sasuke finished with a smirk. That was a plan that he could get behind.

“But why dress like civi’s?” Sakura asked, frowning. She still didn’t understand why they needed to blend in if they were going to take out the threat. They still needed to find Gato and dressing as civilians didn’t seem like that would help them any.

“Well, Tazuna said that the mercenaries are the law enforcement around here and that they take offenders to Gato to be judged on their crimes,” Naruto told them with a foxy smile. “So if we stage a crime they’ll take use straight to Gato since we look like civilian nobodies instead of ninja!”

“You know, at times like this I wonder how you were deadlast in our class.” Sakura frowned at him but Naruto waved that away.

“School was boring and all the teachers did was go on and on about History and proper procedure! Nothing on cool jutsu or anything!” Naruto whined, pouting. “Pranking civilians was a lot more fun!”

“And then you do something like that that reminds me exactly why.” Sakura deadpanned, sighing. Naruto just shrugged with an unrepentant grin. He didn’t bother pointing out that it was his ditching of class that was saving them right now. Sasuke ignored them all in favor of studying his appearance more. He needed to be familiar with how he looked now if it ever came down to more…unpleasant avenues.

Tazuna wondered idly about their sanity as they talked out their plan. They were insane, he’d give them that at least.


	2. Chapter 2

They staked out the town for two days before they finalized their plan. Kakashi sensei wasn’t awake yet and it was nearly a full week since their arrival in Wave. Naruto would have preferred to wait a few more days before acting but was overruled by Sakura who had been adamant that they get it done now. The currently black haired girl was sure that they needed get it done as soon as possible or something horrible was likely to happen. Sasuke had agreed with her and Naruto gave in to them both, out voted. So five days after the beginning of their desperate attempts to figure out a way to make it home alive, they acted.

It was rather easy to get ‘caught’ by the mercenaries. Using the cooperation of a local business man, (who would do anything to get rid of Gato), they spent those two days making sure to be seen around his shop before pretending to rob the man. The mercenaries had promptly ‘caught’ them and kept the merchandise they’d ‘stolen’ as reward before dragging them to Gato’s hideout, deep in the surrounding forest of the town. They’d even gone the extra mile and had threatened the trio with their weapons the entire way to the forest. And because they thought the three genin were civilian children, the mercenaries hadn’t even bothered to bind them or blindfold them the entire way there.

It was a bit too easy, if you asked Naruto yet it was also going just the way they had hoped it would as they were brought straight to Gato’s lair unhindered in anyway. There hadn’t even been a body check to look for weapons! It was beyond obvious that these guys were far too confident in their superiority to everyone not on Gato’s payroll.

Gato, however, was not what they were expecting. Instead of the tall, overshadowing figure that they thought he’d be, Gato was shorter than Naruto and rather heavy in size. There was absolutely nothing remotely terrifying about the business man at all and Naruto was actually rather disappointed that this was the man Wave had been taken over by. Money really could be formidable, he thought while struggling to hold back a snicker at the man’s appearance.  “Well, well, what do we have here?” he looked them over with a greedy eye. “Some little urchins in _my_ country?”

This was going to be too easy, Naruto thought as he forced the victorious grin to remain off his face. There was no way he was giving up their ruse so early. No way in hell. He would have to make sure to get advice from Kakashi on how to keep his face blank because even with his sheer stubbornness, his mission in taming his facial features was a steadily losing battle.

“Yes boss. We caught them stealing from a store in town,” a mercenary grinned greasily. Naruto wondered when the last time the man had taken a bath was. It couldn’t have been anytime recent judging by the smell coming off him.

“Thieves? How disgraceful,” Gato sneered at them in contempt. Naruto fought the urge to yell ‘hypocrite!’ at the man. Disgraceful his ass. If shoplifting was disgraceful then what was stealing and entire _country_?

“We were just hungry!” Sakura whispered, playing the part of the ‘hungry orphan girl’ perfectly. Naruto applauded her performance and kept quiet. His acting skills absolutely sucked. “It won’t happen again! Please, it won’t happen again!”

Gato looked at her in contemplation. “Very well, I’ll be merciful…maybe. That depends on you, boy.” Gato leaned in until his face was level with Sasuke’s. The Uchiha’s face and body language were nothing like that of a scared orphan and Gato had undoubtedly picked up on that fact.  “Are you…repentant, boy?” Sasuke didn’t answer and Naruto saw the kunai tip under his long sleeve. The Uchiha was going to make a move soon and they just needed a distraction to give him the opening he needed strike and Naruto knew the perfect one.

“Leave him alone you bastard!” Naruto shouted in anger as he attempted to ‘free’ himself from his captor. The hard part was not sending his captor flying as his anger at the man wasn’t even a little fake. What kind of a person dominated an entire country and drove it to poverty all for self gain? Gato had ruined the people of Wave’s lives and the man didn’t even seem to care in the slightest. Naruto had no problem in letting his anger at the smug bastard show.

All attention immediately turned to him, his captor struggling to keep the grip on him and Sasuke used that distraction to strike, the kunai in his sleeve digging into Gato’s neck before anyone had a chance to even blink. Naruto grimaced as the man fell to the ground gurgling as he died, the blood spurting onto his and Sasuke’s faces. Maybe, if Gato hadn’t been a complete scumbag that was ruining an entire country, Naruto would have felt bad for his death but people like Gato were just as bad as people like Mizuki and Naruto couldn’t bring himself to care that the dictator was dead. The apathy he felt at the end of the man’s life actually concerned the blond more than a little bit. He didn’t have time to dwell on it, though. Not yet, at least.

“What the-!?” Naruto and Sakura struck, breaking free of their bonds and attacking the mercenaries holding them without mercy. It was either these bastards or Zabuza and there was no way they’d be able to handle the latter. The mercenaries didn’t stand a chance against the trained genin.

“Shit, they’re ninja!” One shouted before Naruto knocked him out with a kick to the head. Creating a few hundred clones, the mercenaries looked at their opponents before fleeing as quickly as they could, some even trampling others in their haste to get out of there. With Gato dead, they had no reason to fight trained ninja and Naruto couldn’t help keeping the savage grin off his face.

They had done it! Their first mission outside of the village and they had managed to get this far without their sensei’s help. A wave of pride in himself and his teammate’s rose in Naruto’s stomach and his savage grin turned into a relieved laugh.

“That was easy,” Sakura blinked in surprise once the hideout was empty of everyone but them. She grinned in time with Naruto’s laughter “I was positive that would be harder.” She wasn’t the only one yet none of them were about to complain about it.

“Now we just need to find Gato’s money stash and pay Zabuza off.” Naruto grinned as his clones searched the room before finding the money in a hidden safe that he easily cracked open. Book smart he wasn’t but life smart? That was his expertise!

He carefully ignored the still bleed out dead body on the floor, kunai still sticking out of his throat. Sasuke, he noticed, was not.

Sasuke stared at Gato’s dead form in contempt before looking to each of his teammates. He was met with supporting eyes from each of them and nodded in agreement.

That idea had promise.

* * *

 

They had taken Gato’s body and hung it in the courtyard the small dictator had used to kill all those opposing him, using the cover of night to hide their movements. It would be a nice surprise for the people of Wave to wake up to in the morning and to the genin, it was poetic justice.

Plus Naruto wanted to see the look on the faces of the people of Wave as they realized that their tormentor was dead. They’d even left the kunai in the man’s throat to let the town know exactly how he died. He’d executed countless members of the town, displaying their deaths like a trophy and it was only right that Gato’s death be displayed in the same way.

“I feel like I should feel horrible,” Sakura whispered as they returned to the forest to try and locate Zabuza’s hideout. “We just killed a man and I can’t feel anything but happiness for Wave.”

Naruto thought over what they knew about Gato and shrugged. “He was kinda pathetic and he was a giant bastard,” the still redheaded genin said. “I even found plans in his office to betray Zabuza after we were taken care of.” And hadn’t that been shocking. Zabuza was a ruthless missing nin, the fact that Gato had the balls to betray him openly and even thought to kill the man spoke of his arrogance. Even dead, Naruto still raged at the man’s horrible deeds. The apathy towards the man’s death had quickly become satisfaction. Another thing that he was a bit worried about.

Sasuke nodded in agreement. Having been the one to actually kill Gato, he felt a strange detachment to the deed. It was almost as if it hadn’t been him that had taken out the small dictator, as if he hadn’t shoved a kunai into the man’s throat. The only thing that bothered him was… “The blood,” he muttered feeling ill as he thought of it. “There was a lot of blood.”

Sakura felt nauseous just remembering the scene. The thought of Gato dead didn’t bother her and the thought of Wave being freed elated her but the memory of blood and the scent of it made her want to sick up. “Maybe this is something all ninja go through?” she wondered aloud. It would help if Kakashi was there to talk to and help them sort out their feelings. She wondered if the reality of it all was going to crash onto them later when they were safe and Kakashi was awake.

Naruto grimaced as well, acknowledging that the sight of that much blood had disturbed him on a number of levels. That was the only feeling he had after killing the man that didn’t worry him. Blood as a whole didn’t bother him yet the rather large and constantly increasing pool of it that had surrounded Gato was too much for him to handle.

“Let’s not think about it,” Naruto grimaced before grinning and changing the subject. “Can you imagine what that little brat’s going to do when we get back?” Inari had made it obnoxiously clear that he expected them to die during their ‘suicide mission’. Naruto was looking forward to putting the brat in his place when they got back.

“Naruto!” Sakura scolded him. “You shouldn’t antagonize a child!” It was times like this that she remembered why Naruto was deadlast in their class. Well, that and his rather bad Taijutsu, limited Ninjutsu and nonexistent Genjutsu.

Really, with the level of knowledge Naruto had shown when taking care of Kakashi’s wounds, Sakura found that it was a bit shocking that he was lagging in everything else. He’d even managed to produce hundreds of solid clones and figure out the Water Walking technique before them (although he _had_ been using his clones to help him). Sakura stared at her currently redheaded teammate in contemplation.

Naruto felt the gaze on him and turned to look at Sakura. “What?” he asked, uncomfortably. The blond/redhead just wasn’t used to being stared at with anything other than contempt or hatred and Sakura’s gaze held neither. Frankly, it was unnerving him.

“You make no sense,” she answered with a frown. Sasuke paused to observe their conversation before nodding his agreement. “You’re really good at treating wounds yet you were deadlast in the Academy. You act like a complete moron half the time and then you do something that’s so brilliant that I almost want to hit myself for not thinking of it sooner. You’re just one giant contradiction!”

Sasuke grunted in agreement with the currently black haired girl. He’d noticed the inconsistency as well and had been planning to bring it up after they met with Zabuza. It seemed that Sakura had beaten him to it, though.

Naruto, however, was at a loss for words. It had never occurred to him that he was acting strange and even now he didn’t think he’d been doing anything odd. He’d learned how to use herbs to heal at a young age and could easily identify them plus he thought his plan with Gato and dressing as civilians was an obvious plan. To the redheaded boy, he had been acting completely normal. “I’m not sure what you’re talking about,” he finally admitted. “I don’t think I’ve been acting that differently at all.”

Sakura studied her teammate thoroughly before sighing. She had a good idea why he seemed so different to them. “We really don’t know that much about each other, do we?” Yeah, she knew about Sasuke’s past but she had absolutely no idea about what he liked, the things he thought about, who his friends where or if he even had any. The same went for Naruto except that she didn’t even know his past!

The worst part was that before now, she’d never even considered asking him about it. When did he first begin treating himself? Why was he so close with the Hokage? Who were his parents? She knew nothing about Naruto. She’d never even thought about asking Sasuke questions about his own quirks either, assuming that they’d all stemmed from the massacre. Who had his parents been? How had he survived the attack? What was he like before it?

Naruto gave her an odd look as if she had said something weird. “Your favorite color is blue,” he said in response. “Ino was your best friend because she defended you against some bullies. Your parents are average Chunin but everyone thinks that you’re from a civilian family. You hate your red dress but it was a gift from Ino so you wear it anyway.” Naruto ignored her startled look and pointed at Sasuke. “You have a tomato obsession and you love the color green because of the trees around Konoha bring back good memories. You used to practice hours at the pier with that fireball jutsu and you had an older brother that used to carry you around. You also don’t live in the Uchiha district anymore but everyone seems to think you do and you use the training grounds there a lot.”

His teammates were staring at him in open shock. Sakura was wondering how he knew so much about her while Sasuke was in shock that Naruto knew anything at all about him. “How did you know that?!” the Uchiha snarled in shock. No one should know about his tomato obsession (he was certain it was an Uchiha thing because his parents had both had also had an obsession over a certain food and he remembered Itachi’s own obsession with pocki) and that other information wasn’t common knowledge either. And just how did Naruto know about Itachi?! Sure, Itachi had taken him into the village a few times but for the life of his Sasuke couldn’t ever remember seeing the blond there during those times.

“I pay attention,” Naruto admitted sheepishly. “I mean I was there during the early Academy days even if we were in different classes. Did you know that Shikamaru is terrified of his mother or that Ino’s mother is a civilian? Or that it’s her dad that owns the flower shop?”

No, they hadn’t known that. In fact, now that they thought about it, Naruto did seem to know everything about everyone. He even seemed to know what had happened to Mizuki-sensei even though Iruka-sensei had told them that it was classified. Something that Kakashi had told them flashed into Sakura’s mind and she smiled. ‘Underneath the underneath, huh?’ Maybe their sensei had been onto something there.

Whatever the man’s motivation had been Sakura was determined to be a decent Kunoichi. Her mother and father may not be high up in the ranks yet even they took being a shinobi of Konohagakure more seriously than she had been. No more red dress on mission or during training, no more focusing only on Sasuke (crush or no crush) and no more relying on only book smarts to keep her afloat. And she _would_ learn everything she could about her teammates. “Being a good shinobi is 20% skill, 20% knowledge, 10% jutsu and 50% information,” Sakura muttered, quoting something her father had told her when she’d first entered the Academy. It hadn’t made any sense then but as she experienced more as a shinobi the more she began to realize what he had been telling her.

“And 100% teamwork,” Sasuke finished. It was an old shinobi saying that was passed down among the ranks of the village. Everyone above Chunin eventually heard the saying somewhere and sometimes shinobi passed it down to their children. Naruto looked like the only one out of them that had no idea what it was and as an orphan who had no real ties to the elder shinobi of the village, Sasuke would have been impressed if Naruto did know it though it wasn’t surprising that he hadn’t.

Sakura didn’t have the skill yet or the jutsu but she had knowledge. Sasuke had the skill, knowledge, and some jutsu but he lack information. Naruto had jutsu, some knowledge, but he was apparently brimming with information. Together they completed the requirement for being a good shinobi.

100% teamwork indeed.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

Hatake Kakashi was confused.

The last thing that he remembered, Zabuza had been taken down by that Hunter Nin. After that, there was nothing. So, when he came to in what appeared to be a poverty stricken civilian's house he'd been wary of what was going on.

It wasn't until the excited squeal of joy that sounded a lot like Sakura came from the doorway that he relaxed.

And then immediately tensed up when instead of a pink-haired genin, he was met with short black hair and a completely new look. Where before she'd been wearing a red dress, now she was wearing a skirt with leggings and a rather simples shirt that were all in shades of green. The only thing that made her recognizable as his student was the structure of her face and her green eyes. Even then, it was only because he was extremely familiar with her that he could tell it was Sakura at all. Kakashi was bewildered.

"Naruto! Sasuke!" The girl hollered out of the door. "Kakashi-sensei's awake!"

Well, her voice was a pretty good give away as well.

Before Kakashi could ask about her drastic change in appearance, things got stranger. Instead of a black-haired Uchiha and a blond-haired Jinchuuriki, he was met was brown hair that was styled in a completely different way and bright red hair that almost had him doing a double take.

The orange jumpsuit had been replaced with a red shirt and black pants, while the traditional Uchiha garb was switched out with a black shirt and grey pants. Kakashi felt his eyebrows rise as he took in their new looks. Not that they could see more than one eyebrow but that was besides the point.

Just what had his students been up to while he had been unconscious?

"Kakashi-sensei!" Naruto grinned brightly. Kakashi was relieved to see that the genin's whisker-marks were at least still present. Though looking at them, they did seem a bit faded, almost as if something had been applied over them recently. "You're awake!"

Sasuke didn't say anything although the Uchiha did seem less hostile than usual, which was his own way of showing his relief. Kakashi almost felt touched by the concern they showed but held back in favor of interrogating them. Something had obviously happened while he was out.

He could tell by the way that they were relaxed in the other's presence. Instead of vague hostility, the three of them almost seemed like they were friends. Naruto wasn’t glaring daggers at Sasuke, who was actually allowing them within his comfort zone which was almost mindboggling to the Jounin. Sakura wasn't fawning over Sasuke nonstop either. His genin seemed to have had a complete personality change in what couldn’t have been all that much time.

"I suppose that I missed a few interesting events, then?" Very interesting, if their complete change in demeanor was any indication.

The three looked at each other before moving closer to the bed he was on, their faces serious.

Kakashi had a feeling that he wasn't going to like what they had to say.

* * *

 

Having Kakashi awake and seemingly on the mend was more than a relief then any of the genin would admit.

The Jounin hadn't been all the pleased with what had been going on while he was unconscious. Not that he was angry with _them_ , in fact he was rather pleased with how they had handled the entire thing. No, he was angry that it had been necessary in the first place. Which meant that Tazuna was not currently his favorite person, though the man did soften up when they explained the full situation to him.

The bridge builder had the self-preservation to keep out of the angered jounin's way, though. Just in case. Ninja were trained to kill without leaving evidence behind, after all.

Naruto sighed as he sat on the bridge, his legs dangling over the side as the construction workers and his clones set about finishing it. They were still technically employed to protect Tazuna and even though Zabuza wasn't a problem anymore, the mercenaries that Gato had hired had tried for the man a few times since Gato's death.

Zabuza and Haku, the fake Hunter Nin, had taken the money that he'd been promised from the loot they'd gathered and had left. He'd even had the decency to let them keep the rest of the money that they'd found, stating that they had done him a favor by taking out Gato. Like predicted, the missing nin had been furious to find out that his employer had been planning on turning on him.

That conversation had been far more stressful than the Uzumaki would have liked it to be, though he did find that he rather liked Haku. Having exchanged a few words with the younger missing nin, Naruto was of the opinion that Haku was far too good to be hanging around Zabuza. He, wisely, kept that thought to himself. Even he knew when to show self-restraint.

Well, for the most part.

"Oi, dobe!" Sasuke's voice broke him out of his thoughts. Naruto scowled at the name though he was aware that it no longer held quite the same sting that it used to. For the most part, Sasuke was content to use his name. Still, the insult still slipped out now and again. "Kakashi-sensei wants us back at Tazuna's house."

Naruto grinned and hopped down of the ledge, landing on the water with practiced ease. It was getting easier and easier to control the amount of chakra he sent to his feet, though there were still times when he started to sink. Most of those were due to distractions catching his attention.

He waited until hearing the telltale ripple of water before taking off towards Tazuna's house, Sasuke right behind him.

Kakashi and Sakura were already waiting for them when they arrived at Tazuna's house. Their sensei was no longer using crutches to move around, which was great progress. Kakashi had been using them since he'd woken up four days ago, his legs having been to unsteady to walk without aid. It had been a bit bizarre to watch the jounin move around slowly with them but Naruto had mostly gotten over it. He was honestly just glad that the man was up and moving.

"You couldn't just use the normal way, could you?" Sakura huffed at them both. Naruto had almost expected her to return to her old behavior now that the threat was over and Kakashi was awake. Instead, she seemed to have permanently adjusted her behavior. She still blushed every once in a while when she was talking to Sasuke but she definitely didn't fawn over him the same way before. She didn't even attempt to hit him anymore!

Though that could be because Naruto hadn't asked her on any dates recently...

"I see you three were busy," Kakashi drawled, seemingly just as bored as ever. Naruto felt the need to huff at the man. They'd worked hard to learn how this water thing had worked! Before he could say so, the man continued. "I suppose that this won't be nearly as interesting a lesson as I was hoping."

The three genin perked up, eyes glinting at the implication of learning something new from their sensei. Kakashi gave them an amused once over before continuing.

"What you three worked to learn is a chakra control technique called water-walking. It's the third most advanced chakra control exercise before element specialties." Kakashi moved towards the trees. "The first of these techniques was taught to you in your Academy days."

Picking a leaf from a low hanging branch, Kakashi place the leaf on his forehead. Immediately, the leaf began sticking to his forehead even when his hand moved away. "Leaf balancing is the first step to learning to focus your chakra.  It also works in teaching young children concentration."

Naruto felt a blush rise on his face when his two teammates looked to him in amusement. He glared at them both.

Kakashi ignored this exchange as he continued talking. "The second of these technique's is the one that I'm going to be teaching you today. It's the most commonly used chakra control exercises in Konohagakure."

Naruto watched in awe as their sensei walked towards the tree and then proceeded to walk up the trunk. "This is commonly referred to was tree walking. Similar to leaf balancing, tree walking requires a steady influx of chakra. However, like water walking, the chakra needs to be adjusted in order to stick. Too much chakra and you propel yourself away from the bark, too little and you'll fall off."

Sakura frowned and moved towards the trees. Naruto and Sasuke watched her intently as she tested the bark with her left foot. The foot slipped from the bark with only a little resistance. Furrowing her brow, Sakura tried again. This time, her foot stuck and the two genin watched their female teammate slowly walk up the tree.

"Maa, good job Sakura." Kakashi called from his own tree. "Sasuke, Naruto, your turn."

The two glanced at each other and then at the trees. Naruto shrugged before moving towards the tree nearest to him.

Mimicking Sakura, he tested the tree with a single foot. Immediately, the foot repelled from the tree, leaving behind a small indent. Naruto grimaced before trying again. This time, the foot stuck to the tree but he could still feel a little give as he placed his other foot besides it. Adjusting the chakra, the blond grinned as he managed to slowly scale the tree.

This was both easier and more difficult than water-walking. Instead of fluctuating his chakra based on the movement of the water, he needed to keep it steady and precise, something that he's always struggled with when it came to leaf balancing. Still, the blond genin easily made it to the first branch, where he turned to check on Sasuke.

The black haired genin was already on his own branch, looking very pleased with himself. Well, as pleased as Sasuke ever looked.

Naruto turned to look at Kakashi, who was looking at them with what Naruto thought was pride. A warm feeling filled his chest and Naruto beamed at the jounin.

Inside his head, Naruto vowed to get the silver haired man to give him that look more often.

* * *

 

Eventually, the bridge was finished and Kakashi was healed enough to make the journey back to Konohagakure. Inari was, surprisingly, devastated to see them go.

The little boy had done a complete turn around in personality after the death of Gato and their victory over the remaining mercenaries. Team Seven had become the young child's idols, following them all around as much as he could. Naruto was a little surprised by the sudden dedication that Inari was showing, not really used to being admired like that. Sakura was just as frazzled, and not-so-secretly pleased, by the attention that he was giving her.

Sasuke seemed completely unbothered by their newest stalker, much to Naruto's annoyance. The Uchiha didn't even seem to notice that he was being followed half the time. Sure, Naruto was pretty sure that was because of his fangirls in the village but it still annoyed him. Especially since Inari was setting off every warning bell in his head whenever he trailed the blond. After over a week of feeling paranoid by everything, Inari was definitely not helping him relax.

Still, it was flattering to have someone appreciate the efforts he'd put into this as much as Inari did. This was the first time that he'd really been praised for using the skills that he'd developed pranking others. Only Iruka-sensei and Jiji had ever really been impressed when he'd pulled one of his bigger schemes in the village and even then he'd been scolded for doing it in the first place.

Kakashi had also seemed impressed with the way he'd disguised them without jutsu. According to their jounin sensei, that wasn’t a skill that many ninja worked to perfect, preferring to rely on genjutsu to disguise themselves instead. In fact, their sensei had sat the entire team down just days before the bridge was set to be finally finished.

“While this is probably the worst C-Rank that any beginning genin team has been assigned, it has brought many things to my attention that I may have not noticed otherwise.” Kakashi looked around at them all, his eyes appraising them. “I do not nearly know enough about you three. Usually, genin teams are supposed to slowly open up to each other, sharing more and more as time goes on. The first C-Rank is carefully chosen when it becomes clear that D-Ranks have become ineffective in furthering teamwork between genin. I’ve come to the conclusion that I was both premature and right on time with choosing to take the next step in your teamwork.”

Naruto frowned. That made no sense whatsoever and only served to confuse the still red-haired genin. How could someone be too early and just on time? Wasn’t that contradictory? (He’d learned so many new words while actually listening to what his female teammate was saying,) He glanced at Sakura and Sasuke, relieved to see both were furrowing their eyebrows at the jounin as well. It always felt nice to know that he wasn’t the only one to have been confused by something.

Kakashi continued on, clearly having to intention of explaining his strange conclusion. “You three have come far by yourselves, balancing your strengths and weaknesses as a team in order to reach a singular goal. Something you all struggled with doing D-Ranks in the village.”

Well, Naruto sighed, he wasn’t wrong. A lot of those ‘missions’ would have been easier if they’d been working together like they’d been doing while they hadn’t had their sensei. Not that any of this would have happened if Naruto hadn’t demanded a better mission, he thought gloomily. It had been bothering him since the tension had died down, remembering that he’d been the one to demand this mission while in the mission office.

Unaware of Naruto’s inner conflict, Kakashi kept on going without pause. “However, I also must take into account how little I know of each of your individual abilities. This is my own fault. I should have sat you all down the minute we were an official team to get a list of your strengths and weaknesses. Instead, I relied on second hand observations and biased opinions of the Academy instructors. If that ignorance had been allowed to continue, it could have seriously damaged your development of these skills. As such, we are going to rectify this immediately. I want a report from each of you on your individual skills as well as the areas that you feel are your weaknesses.”

Kakashi surveyed them, his single eye glinting in determination. Naruto glanced around at his other teammates, exchanging a questioning look with Sakura. Sighing, the former pink haired girl grumbled as she sat to attention. “I suppose I’ll go first,” she said softly, her voice not reflecting her expression at all. It was disturbing to hear such a timid voice coming from someone that was looking at you with murder in their eyes. Naruto had to restrain himself from backing away from her.

Kakashi didn’t seemed phased by this and merely turned his attention to the kunoichi. “I have great chakra control and I can easily remember anything that I hear, see, or read.” Sakura sat straighter and gave them the most challenging look that she could. “I’m good at suppressing my emotions when needed and saving them for when it’s more appropriate.”

She deflated slightly. “I don’t have very good stamina and while my control is great, my reserves are low. I need to work my strength as my taijutsu is inadequate without it.”

Kakashi nodded before turning to look at Sasuke. The currently brunette Uchiha showed no change in demeanor at being addressed before he began. “I know multiple Katon Jutsu and my precision with weapons is one of my strong points. My chakra control is not as good as it could be. I have an easy time remembering things that I read and see, though not to the extent that Sakura has. My stamina is mid-genin level from my estimates. I am not as adapt at learning ninjutsu as I am with Taijutsu.”

Sasuke paused, seemingly taking the time to think over what he knew about his skills and weaknesses. “I have a hard time letting go of something important to me and my social skill are subpar. I don’t have a good understanding of people or how to read them.”

Naruto almost started when he realized that Sasuke had finished, making it his turn. “I’m good with plants and I’m really good at first aid.” Naruto faltered a little, unsure of what else he was actually good at. “I’m good at hiding in plain sight and I’m really good at sneaking into places I shouldn’t be able to. I’m really good at acting and I understand people really well. My weapons skills suck, my Taijutsu is horrible and I can’t seem to get any of the lower level Ninjutsu to work no matter what I do. My chakra control really sucks. I have trouble staying still and sometimes it’s really hard to focus on stuff.”

Kakashi frowned at him when he didn’t continue. “Naruto, I know you’re good at more than just that.” This was the same kid that had managed to learn a kinjutsu in only a few hours, take down a chunnin over a decade older than him, as well as pretty much lead this team on their current mission. Not to mention figuring out how to water walk on his own.

His teammates were frowning at the blond as well. “Seriously, Naruto, that’s like only half of what you’re good at!” Sakura stood, seemingly unable to make her point while sitting. “Sasuke and I were useless when Kakashi-sensei was injured but you knew exactly what to do. And it was your plan that let us take down Gato! And the traps you build are scary good!”

As she talked, Sakura had marched over to the still sitting red-head and glared daggers at him from above. Her eyes were fierce and hard, making it evident that nothing anyone said was going to change her opinion on this matter.

“Dobe,” Sasuke added, somehow conveying in the single word his agreement with their female teammate. Kakashi only watched them with an assessing look in his eye.

“Mah, mah. That might not seem like much, gaki, but most genin don’t have a firm grasp on those things quite yet. That goes for all of you. While it might seem like your weaknesses outweigh your strengths, that is only to be expected of genin. It is the job of your Jounin sensei to begin fixing these gaps in your experience.” Kakashi gave them a once over that made Naruto a bit nervous.

“From here on out, the training gloves come off. Before you start, I need to ask you to be sure that this is the path you want to travel. Once you agree, this is not something you can change your mind on. You will no longer have the option to go back. You three will be on the path to becoming true shinobi of Konohagakure. Are you ready for that?”

Naruto looked to Sasuke, who in turn, looked to Sakura.

“HAI!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm back and I've finally managed to have a fully cemented plan on where I want to go with this story. I lost all the plans for a good chunk of my stories during an unfortunate accident with some watercolor paints and hot chocolate. You don't want to know. But I've been slowly working on new versions now that I have a better laptop than I did when they were first destroyed. So I'll actually be updating things that aren't On the Wings of an Angel. I'm sure that'll be an interesting change of pace, honestly. 
> 
> Hope you enjoyed the Chatper!


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